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I Don't Doubt Hillary's Compassion Overall, Just Her Judgment On Iraq

Hillary went to many poor villages in many poor countries as First Lady. That is one of the reasons why I admire her so much.

But Bill Clinton is now campaigning like he were bar hopping making outrageous suggestions that somehow America would be less safe under President Obama. That line of argument worked for Bush against Kerry in 2004. Bill Clinton thinks it will work for Hillary now. Hillary took the cues from Bush when it was time to vote for or against the Iraq War. Bill Clinton is taking cues from Bush 2004 for January 2008.

Bill Clinton was okay with Hillary 2008's inevitability theme all of this year until it seemed to evaporate off and then he went ahead and blamed Mark Penn for having come up with such a ridiculous line of argument that would lead to total disaster should Hillary lose Iowa.

Bill Clinton talks of 9/11 and Katrina as two things Bush did not see coming. What we don't see today might happen in 2009 or 2010, he seems to be saying.

Is Al Qaeda news to Bill Clinton? I don't have the slightest doubts in my mind that the Al Qaeda, an organization that is stronger today than it was on September 10, 2001, plots everyday to pull off something bigger than 9/11 on American soil.

One scenario I painted yesterday was this. The Al Qaeda that has managed to penetrate the Pakistani state - you don't have to get the top guy, there are enough God-fearing, God-loving middle ranked people in Pakistan's military and especially intelligence services who will not have a hard time in choosing between their allegiance to their God and their state - might manage to "steal" nuclear material, and transport it from Pakistan to Africa to Mexico, using ancient transport methods (mules, anyone?), cross the border, and detonate it in, say, Dallas. That is the next 9/11. An incident like that would mentally paralyze all American cities.

Global warming is no news either. Katrina could happen again. Before the California wildfires, there were similar wildfires that burned down a major chunk of Greece, and the Greek authorities were out arresting known arsonists. That was not arson, that was global warming.

If terrorism and global warming will surprise you, you are not ready to be president, or the presidential spouse.

The worst byproduct of America's invasion of Iraq was that was America taking one eye off the Al Qaeda. Result: the Al Qaeda is stronger today than ever before.

When I study Al Qaeda's momentum, I fear Bin Laden might pull off something bigger than 9/11, one final act, before he goes down in flames.

If you could have imagined 9/11 the year before, what would you have done to prevent it? Or would you have sat idly by?

Now I am asking you to imagine a dirty bomb in Dallas, and giving you a pretty precise geographical location of the people who might mastermind it. What will you do to prevent it? This is a call to design a new antibiotic to go after this new strain of virus. It is not a state with a standing army, so the state with a standing army way will not work. And the approach can't be reactive. Got to be proactive.

I think it is obvious that the Al Qaeda is America's number one security threat.

Either Hillary apologizes for her 2002 vote that took one of America's eyes off the Al Qaeda in a dumb diversion, or she stop pushing the argument that somehow she is better prepared on issues of foreign policy.

If you are scared of terrorism, you should vote for someone who seems to know who the enemy is. The person to vote for is Barack.

If you are scared s___tless on global warming, as you should be, the person to vote for is Barack. He is the only person in this race on either side who can bring the world together on this as many other issues. And, yes, having lived abroad as a child, having family origins on several continents is a big part of it. Living abroad counts. (Living Abroad Counts)

And when Barack mentioned tea, he meant tea as offered in the American embassies and fancy hotels where First Ladies are kept under tight security even when they make their rare ventures into Third World villages.

Between foreign policy and domestic policy, Hillary's strength is domestic. She should stick to it. She should emphasize domestic policy more. Like her generic health care policy: everyone and Harry Truman's cousin have had good ideas on health care. The real question is who can actually bring the country together around it and deliver. The Clintons already got to try once. They failed miserably.